Brockton man indicted in killing of 15-year-old

Derrel C. Webb of Brockton was indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury for murder in the July 28, 2008, slaying of the teen who had been shot through a bedroom window in his family’s North Warren Avenue home.

For nearly two years, the slaying of 15-year-old De’avante Mulder-Grant remained one of the city’s unsolved homicides.

“Any case that involves someone that young, it bothers the investigators,” said Lt. John Crowley, chief of Brockton detectives. “Someone shouldn’t be dead at 15. The investigators want to know who was responsible.”

Now Derrel C. Webb, 23, of Brockton has been indicted by a Plymouth County grand jury for murder in the July 28, 2008, slaying of the teen who had been shot through a bedroom window in his family’s North Warren Avenue home.

Webb, who has a record of gun and drug charges dating to 2004, was being held at the Plymouth County jail on an unrelated gun charge when the indictment, formally made public Monday, was handed up.

Webb is accused of shooting to death Mulder–Grant – known as D.J. – through a window as the teen stood in his first-floor bedroom in 2008.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said the indictment highlights the determination of investigators.

“I expect these cases to be solved,” Cruz said. “More than 80 percent of the homicides are solved and with these older cases, we continue to look at them.”

When the shooting occurred, the teen’s mother rushed into the bedroom when she heard a noise, followed by screams, and desperately tried to save her son.

At the time, the boy’s mother, Renata Mulder-Grant, said she kept her hand over the right side of her son’s neck to stop the bleeding.

Although the case was two years old, State Trooper Scott McGrath and Brockton detective James Smith, along with other investigators, didn’t give up, Cruz said.

“It is really a testament to what the investigators do,” Cruz said. “They do a great job.”